The Gifts We Can Give
Carol Key
We live in a culture where love is often given in tangible gifts intended to show our appreciation. To a fault, we have allowed gift giving to become a rectifying agent to take the place of true gifts of love. However, there are true gifts of love that we are instructed and expected to give to each other in the church. The gifts we can give, that will not rust or age away, are trust, compassion, forgiveness, and companionship. These are the great gifts of love we are expected to both give and receive in our love for each other inside the church.
When the Christian Church is split and divided in so many ways, Jesus always calls us back from our differences to His one act of grace that unites us in every way. Jesus never offered us a teaching that invited us to divide or to give up on each other. Jesus never told us to only associate with those who are just like us. The Church of Jesus Christ is not based on a transient or flimsy gift of individual likeness but is based on a deep to the core of our soul belief that our common dependence in Jesus Christ as Savior holds us together as one body.
There is no tangible gift or popular sectarian movement that will ever replace the love of God for us and our need to receive and express this love to each other. This is what the church is founded upon. We are always and solely children of God saved by the grace of Christ Jesus.
Blessings, Dan